my DK2 is not crashing at all on my XP Pro Sp3 install. Well, I got one when "restarting" a level from the menu, but no game-interrupting CTDs or anything like I was getting on my win7x64 install. That was literally unplayable past lv#4. Everything's cranked up and looking as good as it can for the early 2000'ish era, which aint that bad. Probably better than I've been able to see it before on systems past.

I played it til 1am last night, then woke up at 5:30am and played the next level. DK2 was so ahead of it's time when it comes to running a little sim ecology, it's really sucked me back in after all these years. I find myself going into possession mode and scouting/leading a battle/tunneling away w/ the imps and wow… what a mindblower. Suddenly a moment of clarity at what a fuckin cool game this is, and how totally different it is from anything else I'm currently playing. And you know - this is one of those classics I dont think I ever completed. I played the SP campaign up to a certain point, and between the sandbox "my pet dungeon" and squaring off against inept AI enemy keepers, I burned out and was on to some RTS or something..

I checked out the links you gave, it's interesting that someone else is running w/ the ball on this gameplay concept.